Conventional bed skirts, also referred to as dust ruffles, typically extend downward from a flat horizontal sheet that is placed between a mattress and box spring of a bed to the floor to which the vertically extending skirt is permanently attached, and usually sewn. The enclosure formed helps keep dust from collecting and to hide the box spring, as well as, the space beneath the bed and items stored under the bed and thereby enclosed within the bed skirt. Due to their desirable function and esthetic appeal, bed skirts have become a common component of bedroom décor.
However, problems arise in maintaining the bed skirt due to movement of the bedding as a result of normal shifting of the mattress and bedding thereon in the regular course of shifting body positions or movement on and about the bed. A further problem with conventional bed skirts is the need to lift the mattress off the box spring or bed platform in order to insert or straighten the bed skirt, which entails a cumbersome and laborious process. Often, the lifting and repositioning of the mattress in order to install or even straighten the bed skirt requires more than one person. A yet further problem associated with such conventional bed skirts results from rips and tears of the flat horizontal sheet due to the force and friction that pulling on the bed skirt to straighten it in order to avoid the physical effort and inconvenience of lifting the mattress. Another disadvantage results from the unsightly appearance of an exposed area of the horizontal sheet and the disheveled skirt when normal shifting of the bed causes a portion of the bed skirt to be pulled down out of horizontal alignment. Prior art bed skirt systems such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,553 adding Velcro to the flat sheet fail to address such and other disadvantages of the prior art. To the contrary, the added wear and tear that engaging and disengaging fastener strips upon the flat sheet exacerbates the dislevelling and ripping of the flat sheet inserted between the mattress and box spring of such prior art bed skirts.
Consequently, such and other problems with prior art bed skirt systems limit their use and at times cause consumers to forego their functional and decorative advantages. As a result, some do not employ dust ruffles in their bedding arrangements and others are prone to delay or avoid laundering or replacing a bed skirt that is no longer in clean or updated condition.
Bed skirt systems attempting to address such and other problems with conventional combinations replacing the horizontal flat sheet from which a vertically disposed bed skirt is attached or employing detachable bed skirts have been devised. Examples of such systems are provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,715,553 and 5,335,383. However, such bed skirt assemblies' attachment substitutes for a horizontal sheet present further problems. A prevalent problem arises from unsightly irregular gathering, folding, stretching and detachment of the bed skirt due to instability of orientation, as well as, fragility or elasticity of the material of material, which detracts from the esthetic appearance and imposing the inconvenience entailed by adjustment needed to maintain smooth, uniform horizontal alignment of the bed skirts